


Not Just Make-Believe

by writerbot5000



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Eve thinks they're real dating, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Jess thinks they're fake dating, Light Angst, Minor Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Non-evil Eve, Only one of them them is right, canon adjacent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:07:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22855195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerbot5000/pseuds/writerbot5000
Summary: When Eve Teschmacher starts working at L-Corp, Jess is sure the other woman is not what she seems. When nobody listens to her concerns, Jess resolves to expose Eve's treachery herself. However when Jess tries to befriend the other woman to get insight into her plans, she accidentally ends up in a relationship with Eve. Of course, it's all just pretend, isn't it?
Relationships: Jess/Eve Teschmacher
Comments: 19
Kudos: 49





	Not Just Make-Believe

**Author's Note:**

> Eve and Jess managed to start dating all on their own in a couple of my earlier fics so I decided it was time to give them their own fic.

From the moment Ms. Luthor had asked Jess to handle transferring Eve Teschmacher from CatCo to L-Corp, red flags had gone up. Why would a woman with PhDs in nuclear physics and molecular biology be working as an executive assistant at a media company in the first place? And she just happened to have the same job Ms. Danvers had when she and Ms. Luthor had first met? A new employee with an unexpected skillset, blonde and perky with a keen mind for science and a smile even prettier than Kara’s? Something was definitely up. 

Jess didn’t know just what Eve was after. Was she secretly a tabloid journalist, looking to turn her boss’ life into a series of sordid articles? Maybe she was working for Cadmus? It would be just like Lillian to try to weasel her way into Ms. Luthor’s life like that. Or maybe Eve was with some government agency that wanted an operative to spy on L-Corp’s CEO simply because of her last name. The possibilities were endless, but none of them were good. 

Jess, of course, had immediately voiced her concerns to Ms. Luthor, and then later to Kara, but they both told her there was nothing to worry about. Eve was so sweet, they said. There’s not an evil bone in her body, they said. Their reassurances only further Jess’ resolve, clearly Eve had to be a master of deception if she was able to fool Lena Luthor. Jess would just have to figure out what was going on herself. 

Deciding to research her enemy, Jess had Googled everything she could about Eve Teschmacher. She tried reading through Eve’s published papers, but she hadn’t been able to glean anything useful from them. So then Jess had moved on to stalking the woman’s social media accounts, but all that she was able to learn from that was that Eve loved to post selfies with her cats. It was hard to imagine someone who looked so adorable wearing a onesie while cuddling a cat was actually some sort of spy, but Jess figured that was the point. Spies wouldn’t be very effective if you could easily spot them. 

While Jess was no closer to figuring out what Eve’s ultimate goal was, she suspected that the first step was to seduce Ms. Luthor. Why else would whoever hired Eve have selected someone that was so clearly her type? Jess wasn’t worried about that. No matter how sweet Eve was, no matter how cute her smile was, no matter how brilliant a scientist Eve was, Jess knew her boss had eyes for nobody but Kara. The fact that Eve, and whoever she was working for, thought Eve would have a shot meant that they clearly hadn’t been thorough enough in their planning.

So no, Jess wasn’t worried that Eve would mess up the relationship between her boss and the reporter, but that didn’t mean she still couldn’t cause problems. When she inevitably failed to seduce the CEO, who knew what Eve might try next? If she was just working for some tabloid, she might just give up and go away. But if she was working for Cadmus or some other anti-alien organization, she might decide to resort to more extreme measures. Jess needed to figure out what her plan was. She wouldn’t let Ms. Luthor down. Not again. 

If she couldn’t find any useful information about her nemesis online, Jess would just have to have to befriend Eve. Everyone knew that Jess was Ms. Luthor’s trusted assistant so surely Eve would jump at the chance to make friends with her in the hopes Jess might let some useful information slip. Jess would turn the tables and use their ‘friendship’ to expose Eve’s true agenda. 

Jess made a point of greeting Eve whenever their paths crossed. Of joining her if she saw the other woman eating lunch alone in the break room. Eve seemed receptive to her overtures, surely thinking if she could gain Jess’ trust she might be able to use her to get to Ms. Luthor (fat chance of that happening). 

It turned out that cracking a professional spy’s facade was not easy. Eve seemed very warm, open and friendly, but after a couple of weeks of shared lunches, Jess was no closer to uncovering anything useful about the woman. 

Jess needed to get past the facade Eve was putting up. Maybe if Eve had a few drinks, she would be more likely to slip up. But it’s not like they could just get drunk in the breakroom in the middle of a work day. So Jess decided to invite Eve to dinner one day. It would be a little more intimate than their breakroom lunches and maybe if she plied the other woman with enough wine, Jess might be able to find a crack in her friendly facade. 

It was kind of intimidating, asking the other woman to dinner. It had been easy enough to talk to Eve at work, but there they were surrounded by co-workers, not to mention L-Corp security guards. No matter how dangerous Eve might be, she would be foolish to try anything when surrounded by so many witnesses. A restaurant was still a public place, but she wouldn’t have friends and co-workers nearby. But Jess wasn’t going to let fear stop her from protecting Ms. Luthor, so she pushed ahead with her plan. 

The next time when she and Eve were eating lunch, Jess pushed down her nerves and asked, “Um, what do you say we go get something to eat outside of work some time? There’s this cute little Italian place on Oakwood,” Jess asked, looking down and fidgeting with her hands. She was afraid if she looked Eve in the eyes, the spy would sense her deception.

“You mean, like a date?” Eve asked.

Jess looked up at the other woman in surprise. Jess very much had not meant like a date. She had just been looking for a way to loosen Eve up. But in a revealing secrets way, not in a date way. But Eve was smiling softly at her, and in some ways a date would be even better than going out to eat as friends, it would give Jess an excuse to ask Eve all sorts of questions. The more questions Jess was able to ask, the more likely Eve would let something slip. 

“If that’s okay,” Jess answered. She was surprised at the butterflies in her stomach as she waited for Eve’s response. It must have been because if Eve rejected her it would seriously hamper Jess’ ability to investigate the other woman. 

“That’s more than okay,” Eve answered. She had been smiling already, but as soon as Jess confirmed her intentions, the other woman’s face lit up as she practically beamed at Jess. Eve probably thought this would be a perfect chance to get dirt on Ms. Luthor out of Jess. “How about tonight?” 

“Can’t wait,” Jess replied, though inside she was freaking out a bit. Pretending to befriend someone who may be a Cadmus agent was challenging enough, but pretending to date them? 

Once lunch wrapped up and Eve left to go back to the labs, Jess pulled out her phone and started frantically Googling information on fake dating. For once the internet was failing her. All she could find were articles on fake dating tropes that turned up in TV shows, rom-coms and fan fiction, where the fake daters would inevitably fall in love. That was not the sort of help Jess was looking for. She was just going to have to muddle through on her own.

It soon became clear that ordinary first date jitters and “I’m going on a fake date with someone who might be a spy or an assassin or something” jitters actually were pretty similar. Jess had the same struggle to find the perfect outfit. The same nervous energy as she approached the restaurant. It’s just that instead of worrying that her date might be boring, or a bit of a jerk, she had to worry if her life was in danger.

That nervous energy Jess felt was only amplified when Eve walked into the restaurant. Jess could admit that even in her work-appropriate attire, Eve was an attractive woman, but this was her first chance to see her outside of the office. Eve had opted for a strapless periwinkle dress that really showed off her arms. “Wow,” Jess breathed. “You look… wow!” 

Eve laughed, eyes twinkling. “You don’t look so bad yourself, Miss Huang,” she added before biting her lower lip as she took in Jess’ appearance. 

During the date, Jess had expected that Eve would try and pump her for information about Ms. Luthor, or maybe try to find some dirt on L-Corp, but other than a couple passing mentions of how much she enjoyed working with Ms. Luthor and how she was loving the chance to do real science again, there was very little discussion of their work. Obviously Eve was too clever to be so direct. 

Just because Eve was biding her time didn’t mean Jess was going to miss out on the chance to try and get some information from her foe. In some ways, a first date was a bit like an interrogation. She had the perfect excuse to ask Eve all manner of questions in the guise of wanting to get to know the other woman better. 

“So how does a woman with PhDs in biology and physics end up working as the personal assistant for the head of a media empire?” was Jess’s first question.

“It definitely wasn’t something I planned,” Eve admitted. “I was working as a researcher for LordTech. I was enjoying the work, but one day I stumbled across some files showing that Maxwell Lord was working on some weird Omegahedron device that had been supplied to him by Cadmus.”

“I remember reading about that.” CatCo had done a massive expose on Max Lord’s ties to Cadmus a couple of years earlier. It had generated a lot of scrutiny in LordTech and Maxwell Lord at the time, but the company had denied everything and between his army of lawyers and nearly limitless funds, LordTech had managed to remain in business, the only legal consequence being a small fine levied by the IRS over some questionable accounting practices. 

“I’m the one that leaked the story to CatCo. I violated a ton of NDAs in the process, but I couldn’t keep quiet when I realized my boss was working with Cadmus. Lord couldn’t prove it was me, but three days after the story got published, I was fired for ‘gross incompetence.’” Eve rolled her eyes, making it clear what she thought of the assessment. 

“I still don’t know how they found out I was the one that talked to CatCo, but I must have slipped up somewhere. And even with all the scandal the company was facing, Maxwell Lord still had a lot of influence. He had me blacklisted from every lab in the city.” 

“That’s horrible!” Jess answered. Though she couldn’t say she was surprised given what she had heard about Maxwell Lord. 

Eve just shrugged. “Cat found out what happened and so she offered me a job at CatCo. My PhD’s are all in the sciences, but I studied literature in college too so it wasn’t quite as much of a stretch for me to end up working for a news magazine as you might think. Working as an assistant wasn’t my dream job, but Cat Grant had always been one of my heroes and I wanted to stay in National City so I took it.” 

Eve laughed, “Of course, she left almost immediately after she hired me, but James Olsen was a pretty good boss too. Not as inspiring as Cat Grant, but he was also much less prone to yelling if you messed something up, so it balanced out. But when Lena offered me a chance to do real science again, I jumped at it. ” 

Eve’s story made sense. And everything matched up with the information Jess had found in her own research. That was the case with any question she asked. She was learning a lot about Eve, but none of what she learned was bringing her any closer to uncovering Eve’s true agenda. 

Worried that if she asked too many questions designed to get Eve to slip up, eventually Jess moved away from trying to get Eve to let something slip to just treating it like she was on a normal date. 

Even though she was still convinced the other woman was up to something, Jess had to admit that Eve was a charming date. She had such an upbeat attitude that you couldn’t help but get caught up in. Somehow it ended up being the best first date Jess had had in a long time, even if it was all fake. 

Eve apparently enjoyed their date as well, as she volunteered to walk Jess back to her apartment. As they neared the front of the door to Jess’ building, Eve told her, “I had a really great time tonight. I’m so glad you asked me out.” 

“Me too,” Jess answered. She may not have gotten any answers, but it had still been a great night. 

Jess realized that if their date was a real date, she would definitely want to end the night with a goodnight kiss. It’s not like Jess had been thinking about what it might be like to kiss Eve all evening, but if she was going to have to keep up this fake dating facade, she should kiss Eve good night, right? 

The two women stood, staring at each other for a moment before Eve had tentatively asked, “Would… would it be okay if I kissed you?” Instead of answering, Jess leaned forward and gave the other woman a gentle kiss. 

Jess had to admit that Eve was a good kisser. And the smile on Eve’s face when after they ended the kiss and she bid Jess goodnight was almost enough to make Jess forget that the whole thing was nothing but a ploy. Almost. 

It was after their first date that Jess found out that Eve was a prodigious texter. Jess eagerly responded in kind, hoping that Eve might be more apt to let her guard down over text. It soon became clear however that Eve was able to keep up her persona just as well over text as she could in person. Instead of Eve asking Jess probing questions about L-Corp or Ms. Luthor, it was all funny memes, thoughtful and supportive messages, and videos of Eve’s admittedly adorable cats, Alma and Ladybug.

It was the day after their second date that things got even more complicated. Jess had been breaking her own rule about not texting when she was at work more and more often ever since she and Eve had started ‘dating’ (she reasoned it was okay since it was all in the service of protecting her boss from a rogue employee. So it was still work-related in a way). Jess hadn’t been able to resist her curiosity when she had seen a new message had come in from Eve. She was reading the message, Eve promising to take her on a surprise date on the weekend, when Ms. Luthor and Kara came back from lunch.

Jess hadn’t noticed their approach and it was only when Kara’s voice said, “Someone’s in a good mood today!” That Jess even noticed their approach. 

“What?” Jess yelped. She practically jumped at their sudden appearance, but did her best to keep from looking like she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smiling at your phone like that before. Got a hot date?” Lena teased.

“Um…” Jess froze, her cheeks flushing. 

“It _is_ a date!” Kara gasped, looking far too excited at the possibility.

Crap. Jess didn’t want to lie, especially not to her boss. She knew how much Ms. Luthor hated when people lied to her. But both women had dismissed her concerns about Eve. If she told them the truth, they would make her stop her investigation. So she decided to answer as truthfully as she could without giving away what she was really up to. “If you must know, I do have a date this weekend.” 

“That’s great!” Kara cheered. “Who’s the lucky guy? Wait, don’t tell me,” Kara added before Jess could begin to answer. “Is it Brad in Accounting? I bet it’s Brad, isn’t it? I always see him stopping by your desk.” 

“What, no?” Jess sputtered. “He just comes by when I have to sign off on invoices for Ms. Luthor. And he’s married. Plus he’s kind of a jerk too!” That was just… no.

“Oh,” Kara said, looking momentarily crestfallen that her guess had been wrong before she brightened again. “Can I have another guess?” 

Wanting to forestall any further guesses, Jess blurted out, “It’s Eve.” 

“Eve as in Eve Teschmacher?” Ms. Luthor asked, arching an eyebrow. 

When Jess nodded, Kara responded with “That’s amazing!” The hero was practically vibrating with excitement. “Lena, your science assistant and your CEO assistant are dating! Isn’t that great?” 

“They do seem like they would make a good match,” Lena responded with what sounded like a hint of pride in her voice.

“I totally should have guessed Eve instead of Brad,” Kara gushed. That makes so much more sense; you two always look so cozy together when I see you in the breakroom. I totally would have guessed Eve, but I didn’t know that you were into women.” 

“It’s kind of a new thing for me,” Jess admitted. That much was true. Her relationship with Eve may just be a ruse, but it had made Jess realize some things about herself. When kissing the person who may or may not be secretly plotting to kill your boss is hands-down the best kiss you’ve ever had, it makes you do some serious self-reflection. 

“Oh, Rao!” Kara called out, somehow looking even more excited. “This explains your whole silly ‘Eve is a spy’ thing! I bet you were all ‘I don’t trust this new employee’ on the outside, but on the inside you were all ‘Wow, she sure is pretty!’ Eve’s your Maggie!” 

“Eve’s my what?” 

Kara just ignored the question. “And now we can do a double-date sometime! You have to tell me everything. When did you realize you liked her? How long have you two been dating? Did she ask you out or did you ask her out?”

Jess looked to Ms. Luthor, pleading for help with her eyes. The CEO just laughed. “When she gets like this, it’s best to humor her.”

Kara caught the interaction and trailed off. “Oh, sorry. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I just got a little excited...” 

Hurting Kara Danvers’ feelings was like hurting a puppy. Jess knew she was going to have to answer every one of the hero’s questions, if only to stop herself from feeling guilty for upsetting the woman. Besides, if she wanted people to believe her relationship was real, she should be excited to talk about it, right? 

“It’s okay, Kara,” Jess replied, “I’d love to answer your questions.”

The hurt look on Kara’s face was gone in an instant and the excited puppy was back. This was going to take a while. The sacrifices Jess made to keep her boss safe. 

Later that afternoon, Jess thought Eve might have figured out that Jess had been faking their relationship when the other woman came up and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“Tell you what?” Jess asked, figuring it was best to play dumb.

Eve looked around the office before leaning closer, dropping her voice to just barely above a whisper, “Why didn’t you tell me you had never dated another woman before?” 

Of course Jess couldn’t give Eve the real answer. That she hadn’t even realized she was interested in women until after she had accidentally started dating Eve. And that she had only ended up in this situation because she was wary of Eve’s intentions. 

“I’m still kind of figuring myself out. I didn’t want you to think our relationship was just some experiment,” Jess admitted, getting as close to the truth as she dared. 

“Babe,” Eve said, taking Jess’s hand, “I would never think that. I know you wouldn’t play with me like that. Besides, you can’t fake what we have.”

“I… I think that too. Thank you for understanding,” Jess answered, squeezing the other woman’s hand. It was a good thing she knew Eve was just trying to use her or else Jess would have felt incredibly guilty about how understanding the other woman was being.

“Of course. You can always tell me anything,” Eve said, as if to remind Jess just why she had to keep her guard up. That’s what Eve wanted, for Jess to start spilling secrets. Jess just needed to play along until she could get some evidence of Eve’s plan. 

And yet, no matter how long she played along, Jess was never able to get anything conclusive she could use. Sure, sometimes Eve would ask a question about something that Jess was working on at L-Corp, but that could be chalked up to Eve being a supportive girlfriend. It was never anything that came anywhere close to constituting definitive proof. 

As the weeks turned into months, Jess and Eve continued to date. It was too bad their relationship was a lie because Jess really enjoyed spending time with Eve. Eve projected an innocence about her that could be mistaken for naiteve at first glance, but she was a lot smarter than people gave her credit for. And thoughtful too. Even with knowing it was all an act, it was almost impossible not to like the woman.

It was just another day at the office when Jess realized just how hard it was to fake being in a relationship. She walked into the breakroom one day to find Eve starring forlornly at a chicken salad. Playing the role of a good partner, Jess had asked Eve what was wrong. 

“Everything,” Eve had sighed. “The subway broke down and I was late to work. Then I made a stupid mistake in the lab that ruined a whole week’s worth of work. I’ve been running around all morning trying to save what I can of the work, but I’m going to have to start from scratch. I just wanted to come in here and eat my yogurt, but when I opened it, I realized it was expired.” 

“Oh, sweetie,” Jess answered, giving her girlfriend’s hand a comforting squeeze. Losing out on a yogurt might not seem like a big deal, but yogurt was Eve’s comfort food. She always said that no matter how bad a day she was having, yogurt helped make things better. 

Unfortunately, Eve had extremely specific yogurt preferences. She would only ever eat Iceboa blueberry yogurt. It wasn’t that she didn’t like other flavors or other brands, but she liked to argue that Iceboa blueberry yogurt was the best yogurt ever so it was silly to eat anything else. The breakroom vending machines did have yogurt, but it wasn’t Iceboa.

“Maybe you could duck out and pick up some fresh yogurt?” Jess offered. 

“I have a meeting right after lunch,” Eve said, voice wavering. “So I won’t be able to get more until this evening. I’ll muddle through though,” Eve added, trying to put on a bright face. 

As soon as Eve had left to go back to work, Jess had left the office herself. Fortunately, Ms. Luthor had been flown to Gotham for a meeting that day, so Jess’ only real duty was to monitor and respond to emails and meeting requests, so she was able to take a long lunch without disrupting her boss’ day. 

As someone who didn’t really eat much yogurt herself, Jess had never realized just how niche a brand Iceboa was until she had visited her third grocery store and still not had any luck. Jess considered texting Eve to ask where she usually bought it, but that would ruin the surprise so Jess resolved to keep looking. 

It took four more grocery stores before Jess found one that stocked Iceboa, but finally on the seventh store she found it sitting in the dairy section. Some people might have said that buying three cases of blueberry yogurt was excessive, but Ms. Luthor had been kind enough to let Jess use her personal fridge, and the CEO rarely had more than a salad in there so she knew there would be plenty of room. 

By the time Jess had gotten back to L-Corp, Eve’s meeting was over, but Jess had still been able to sneak into the other woman’s lab sight unseen and leave one of the yogurt cups sitting on her desk. It had taken nearly two hours, but to Jess it was time well spent. 

Apparently it had been time well spent to Eve too. Jess knew how busy Eve was so she didn’t see the other woman for the rest of the afternoon, but less than 15 minutes after Jess had gotten home from work, there had been a knocking at her door. Jess had opened the door to find Eve on the other side. 

As soon as Jess had opened the door, Eve had reached out and pulled Jess towards her and Jess found herself being greeted with a searing kiss. The kiss went on for probably longer than was appropriate considering they were now standing in the hallway, but when they finally broke the kiss, Eve had continued to hold Jess, their foreheads touching. “I love you,” Eve sighed. 

Jess didn’t even think before the words were out of her mouth, “I love you too.” 

“Yeah?” Eve asked, voice hopeful. 

“Yeah,” Jess answered, nodding. And in the moment she meant it. She wasn’t thinking about Cadmus, spies or L-Corp, she was just thinking about how good it felt to have Eve in her arms. It was only later that she would remember that it was all an act. What they had wasn’t real, but for the first time she wished it was. 

Jess figured she must be getting the hang of the whole being undercover thing as she was getting better and better at going “full-method.” That’s had to be why she felt like she meant it when she had told Eve she loved her too, right? 

However, as time went on, Jess found it harder and harder to remember that it was all an act. There would be days and eventually even whole weeks when Jess would forget that what they had was all a game. But time and again whenever she started to doubt herself, Jess reminded herself that the more she immersed herself into the role of loving girlfriend, the more likely Eve would do something to tip her hand. 

And so it went. There were walks in the park, trips to farmer’s markets, weekends spent at each other’s apartments. Eventually Eve even asked Jess to move in with her. And yet through it all, Jess was no closer to uncovering her girlfriend’s ultimate goal. 

There were times that Jess thought she had something. Not long after they moved in together, Eve suddenly ended a phone call the second Jess entered the room on three separate occasions over a two-day period. When Jess asked who Eve had been talking to, the other woman claimed it had just been a telemarketer. 

If theirs had been a normal relationship, Jess might have suspected her girlfriend was having an affair. But instead Jess thought she was finally getting somewhere in her investigation. It had taken almost a year, but at last Jess’ suspicions were being vindicated. Oddly enough the excitement she felt at finally having a chance to expose Eve as a villain manifested itself as a tightness in her chest and a heavy weight in the pit of her stomach. 

But then just a few days later the reason for those secretive calls became clear when Jess walked into their darkened apartment after a long day only for all her friends to jump out and yell, “Surprise!” The only thing Eve had been plotting was Jess’ birthday party. She had it three weeks early so Jess wouldn’t suspect anything. For someone that usually spent her birthday alone, it was one of the sweetest things someone had ever done for her. But it also meant she still had no clue as to what Eve’s plan might be. 

And it wasn’t even like she was doing a good job of keeping Eve away from Ms. Luthor. Of course, even before Jess and Eve started dating, Eve worked with Ms. Luthor in the lab at least a couple days a week. Eve had quickly become Ms. Luthor’s favorite collaborator whenever there was some new project to undertake. So Eve was around the CEO all the time at work.

And Kara had been serious when she said they should double-date after she found out about Jess and Eve’s new relationship. Eve had been almost as excited as Kara about the idea and the two women had started planning a double-date almost immediately, with Jess and Ms. Luthor having no choice but to go along with it. 

Going on a double-date with her boss and her boss’ girlfriend had been weird. At least at first. Jess knew that she and Lena were friends, but they had always kept up the pretense of being a boss and an employee. Lena was Ms. Luthor, and Jess was her assistant. But it was hard to keep that sort of pretense up while on a double-date. Especially since Kara seemed to have so many double-date ideas. 

By the time they had their third double-date, at a paintball arena of all places, Jess and Lena had completely dropped the boss/employee pretense. It was hard to pretend someone was just your boss when you were trash talking each other during a game of paintball. 

It wasn’t like Jess and Lena hadn’t already best friends before all this, but it felt great to be able to actually acknowledge it. Somehow fake dating a potential spy had helped Jess to have a more normal friendship with her best friend. Life was weird.

As time went on, Jess started to doubt her plan. It seemed like Jess would never be able to find the crack in Eve’s persona. Eve may be some sort of master spy, but Jess definitely was not, and no matter how many movies she watched or articles she read, she wasn’t going to suddenly become one. But anytime Jess thought about giving up, there would be a scandalous, lie-filled article about L-Corp in some tabloid or another attempt on Lena’s life and Jess be reminded of the stakes. Her best friend had done so much for her, so much for the entire world. If there was a chance Jess could do something to spare Lena some future pain, then she would do it gladly. So it made sense for her to keep dating Eve, even if it wasn’t yielding any information, right?

Whenever Jess started to feel guilty, she was always able to rationalize it away. But then one day, a little over 18 months after she and Eve had first started dating, Jess finally found a line she couldn’t cross. 

It had been such a nice night too. Eve had taken them to their favorite Italian restaurant, the same one that they had gone to on their first date. One moment, Jess was trying to decide if she had room for dessert and the next, Eve was on one knee, holding a ring box in her hand. It was just too much.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Jess accused, pushing the ring box back at a shocked looking Eve. “It’s bad enough that you’re so sweet and charming. That you are so damned supportive! That you made me fall in love with you! But now you want me to marry you? You really don’t care about me at all, do you? As long as you can complete your precious mission, who gives a damn about me and my feelings!”

Jess stormed out of the restaurant, wiping furiously at the tears streaming down her face. It wasn’t until Eve was in front of Jess, offering her everything she wanted, that Jess had fully realized the truth. She wanted to marry Eve. She wanted to spend her life with the other woman. But Eve she knew was a lie. Their relationship wasn’t real. For all Jess knew, Eve wasn’t even Eve’s real name.

And to make it worse, their whole relationship was all for nothing. A year and a half of dating and Jess knew no more about Eve’s agenda now than she did the day that Eve had been transferred from CatCo. The only thing she had managed to do with her attempt at playing detective was break her own heart.

The Lyft ride back to their apartment passed in a blur and Jess was soon back home, sitting on the couch, wrapped in Eve’s favorite blanket with Ladybug curled up in her lap (she had tried to get Alma to join her too, but the normally friendly calico had just hissed at her as if blaming her for something; thankfully Ladybug seemed happy enough to cuddle with her). The blanket, with its cartoon unicorns on it, had been a Christmas gift from Jess their first Christmas together. Eve ran cold and so when she was home, she would be wrapped up in it on all but the hottest nights of the year. The sight of her girlfriend buried in the blanket had never failed to bring a smile to Jess’ face. 

Their relationship may have been fake, but Jess knew that Eve genuinely loved the blanket. And her cats. Being wrapped in it now herself, with Ladybug purring in her lap brought Jess a small measure of comfort. The Eve she had fallen in love with wasn’t real. And after the way Jess had called her out, Eve would have no reason to keep up her act; she’d break up with Jess and then try some other way to achieve her ends. Jess would never get to see her Eve again. But for now, she still had Eve’s blanket and Ladybug purring in her lap. 

Jess had no idea what to do next so she just sat there, absentmindedly petting Ladybug and staring morosely at the wall. She probably would have sat there all night if not for the sudden gust of wind and the appearance of Supergirl. 

“Jess, are you okay?” the hero asked as she appeared in front of her, “Can you tell me what happened?” Even as she spoke it was clear that she was using her x-ray vision to check for any signs of injury. 

“I’m… I’m fine, Kara.” 

“Oh thank, Rao,” the woman answered, sighing with relief. “I’m going to text Lena and let her know you are okay. We thought something awful had happened to you. Eve came to our apartment in hysterics. She was crying so hard so couldn’t really speak. The only thing we managed to get out of her was your name. From the way she was acting, we thought you were dead.”

“I just couldn’t do it anymore. Not when it wasn’t real.” 

For the first time, Jess opened up to someone about her whole plan. Really, it probably would have been easier to talk to her best friend about this, but Jess knew that Lena was with Eve right now, and besides, Kara was Jess’ friend too. It just felt good to finally tell someone. She explained about how she had been immediately suspicious of Eve and how, when Kara and Lena hadn’t shared her concerns, she had decided to befriend Eve as a way of figuring out her plan. She explained how her attempt at a friendly dinner had been misinterpreted and how she and Eve had started dating. How Jess had managed to convince herself that her growing feelings were all just part of her cover, and everything that had happened over the last year and a half. 

“When she asked me to marry her… that’s when I realized at some point I had stopped pretending to be in love. I knew she was playing me the whole time, but I still fell for her anyway. It doesn’t make any sense.” 

“Well, of course you fell for her!” Kara huffed in exasperation “Fake dating someone practically guarantees that you’ll fall in love!” 

“I don’t think that just because you pretend to date someone that it means you—.”

“Seriously?” Kara interrupted. “How does nobody know this? If you fake date someone, you almost always end up falling in love with the person you are fake dating. Well, unless it’s part of like someone super-complicated revenge plot and then you fall in love with the person helping you orchestrate the plot instead. Those are like the only two possible outcomes!” 

“Maybe that’s how it works in the movies, but this is the real world,” Jess countered.

Kara just laughed. “Alex said those exact words to me when the DEO partnered with the NCPD on an undercover assignment when they needed to investigate some shady nightclub that was selling alien drugs. And now she and Maggie are married!” 

“Okay, so it happened one time,” Jess allowed. 

“Uh, no. It’s like every time!” Kara protested. “J’onn tried to send me and Vasquez undercover as newlyweds once. This wasn’t long after Lena and I had started dating. I told him that Vasquez was great but that Lena and I were very much in love and I wasn’t going to risk that just to gather some intel for a mission. I’d much rather end up having to deal with a few surprises during a fight than mess things up with Lena.” 

“And what did he say about that?” 

“He was not happy about it,” Kara admitted. “He was all ‘That’s an order, Supergirl!’ and ‘you’re being ridiculous, Supergirl!’ but I was not having it. I even threatened to quit if he tried to make me go through with it. Not that I would actually quit, but I definitely wasn’t about to go into any sort of fake dating mission. Thankfully Lucy Lane happened to be at the DEO on a temporary assignment that month and she volunteered to take my place. I think J’onn didn’t want to have to keep listening to me complain so he went along with it.”

“And what happened then?” 

“Well, first Lucy teased me like so much. Not in like a mean way. Lucy’s not mean; she likes to tease, but she’s not mean about it. She managed to rope Vasquez into her jokes too. The rest of the day, the two of them kept making big dramatic declarations of love for each other whenever I was around. That was before they actually went on their mission though,” Kara added with a chuckle. 

“I’m guessing things changed after that?” Jess asked, seeing where the story was going. 

Kara nodded her head and laughed. “Oh yeah. Vasquez is one of the best agents I know. They’re a total professional. And Lucy likes to joke around but in the field she takes her work very seriously. If anyone would be able to stay professional in that sort of situation, it would be those two. But for all their professionalism they only lasted two days. That’s all it took; two days of pretending to date as part of their cover before it stopped being pretend for them. Fake dating is like relationship ambrosia.” 

“So that’s it?” Jess asked. “I’m in love with Eve because I pretended to date her?” Something about that did not sit right with her. 

“Kind of?” Kara said with a shrug. “I mean that’s why you fell for her in the first place. Fake dating is really intense and it can bring out feelings you aren’t even aware of. But it’s not magic. And it won't last if there’s not something solid behind it. But anyone with eyes can see the two of you are perfect for each other. There's like so much solid behind you.” 

“Yeah, except Eve’s not even Eve, is she?” Jess laughed wryly. “I fell in love with a lie. God, I’m so pathetic.” 

“Jess, you are not pathetic,” Kara insisted with typical Supergirl determination. “You are an amazing person. Any woman would be lucky to have you.” The hero was quiet for a moment before continuing. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe it isn’t a lie? That Eve asked you to marry you because she loves you and wants to build a life with you?” 

Jess laughed bitterly. “I wish that were true. But it’s not. She’s just using me to get to Lena.”

“Okay, let’s say for a second you are right. That Eve has worked her way into L-Corp and your life as part of some elaborate plan to get at Lena. What’s her endgame? Lena trusts her. I trust her. She works with Lena on all of L-Corp’s most secret projects. She even knows that I’m Supergirl. If she actually was some sort of supervillain or spy, she has everything she needs to take us down from the inside. So why hasn’t she?” 

“Maybe she’s like some sort of sleeper agent?” Jess speculated. “You know, just biding her time waiting until her boss’ give her some sort of signal?” 

Kara sighed, taking a seat next to Jess on the couch. “You are set on this whole spy thing, aren’t you?” 

“It’s the only thing that makes sense.” Why else would someone like Eve want to be with Jess in the first place?

“Did Lena ever tell you how she and I started dating?” Kara asked, seemingly switching gears.

“I know the basics,” Jess answered. “Speaking of facades, the two of you spent months pining over each other, pretending you were just friends. Then Lena finally worked up the courage to ask you out on a date, and viola,” Jess laughed fondly, thinking back on the time. “I missed out on when you actually started dating, but literally the second I saw Lena and I knew you two had finally admitted your feelings. I had never seen her lit up like that before.” 

Lena had practically forced Jess to use a couple weeks of vacation time, even going as far as to block Jess’ access to the L-Corp servers to ensure Jess wouldn’t be able to check-in and help out when she was supposed to be on vacation. When her vacation started, Lena had still been doing lots of pining and sighing. When Jess had returned, the sighing had stopped and the CEO had been downright giddy. 

“It wasn’t quite that simple,” Kara admitted with a grimace. “You are right that we were both heavily into the whole pining thing. For like so, so long. But when Lena finally admitted her feelings and asked me out on a date, I turned her down.” 

Jess could not have been more surprised if someone told her that Maxwell Lord was Batman. Even back then everyone knew how Kara felt about Lena. Well everyone other than Lena herself. It made no sense that Kara would have rejected Lena. “You turned her down? Are you an idiot?” 

“A complete idiot,” Kara agreed. “I was so in love with her. I had been for so long. Still am. But at the time I thought there was no way Lena would ever want to be with me. So I refused to even entertain the idea. Instead, I convinced myself that my feelings for Lena were normal feelings to have about your best friend. I’d never had a friend like Lena before. I told myself that when my heart clenched at the idea of her dating someone else, it was just because I didn’t want her to date someone that wasn’t worthy of her. It wasn’t true, but it made things easier. But then when I found out she wanted to date me, my first instinct was to latch on to what I knew. That Lena was my friend and not something more.” 

“Really?” It was hard to believe that Kara wouldn’t have jumped at the chance to go out with Lena. 

“It’s true. I gave Lena a whole speech about how much I valued our friendship,” Kara explained, visibly cringing at the memory. “Then I went home and spent the entire weekend curled up on my couch, binge-watching Netflix and eating tub after tub of ice cream. I knew I had hurt Lena by rejecting her, so I told myself I was just sad about hurting my friend.” 

“But you figured it out eventually, right?” 

A little sheepish, Kara answered, “Only with Alex’s help. She sat me down and pointed out the blindly obvious. That I was clearly just in love with Lena as she was with me. I had done such a good job convincing myself we were only friends that I couldn’t see what was right in front of me, that Lena was the love of my life.” 

It was clear what Kara was implying with her story, but Jess wasn’t sure the analogy was apt. “And you think that’s what’s happening with me and Eve? That Eve is just as wonderful as she appears to be, that she’s only ever wanted me for me? That there is no evil plot to thwart?” 

Kara paused for a moment, seeming to consider the question before answering. “Eve is my friend and I trust her, but you know her better than I do. So you tell me, do you really think Eve is secretly evil?” 

That was the question, wasn’t it? The whole reason she had ended up in this situation in the first place was because Jess had been so sure Eve was the type of person who would do anything to get what she wanted. But what if Jess was wrong? She and Eve had been dating for a year and a half and in all that time Eve hadn’t let anything slip. What if the reason was because there wasn’t anything to let slip in the first place? 

As Jess thought, flashes of memories appeared. Lots of little moments, like the time Eve managed to convince Jess to try paintball (it turned out they were both terrible at it, but it had been a lot of fun). The fun they had the night they spectacularly failed at baking a cake. The nights cuddled up with Eve on the couch as they binged the cooking shows that had made them think they could bake a cake in the first place. 

Then there was the time that they had stayed up all night scouring first the apartment, then the building and finally then the neighborhood after Ladybug had disappeared, only for them to realize the next morning that the silly cat had managed to shut herself in the linen closet. Eve had been in a near panic the whole night and had balled tears of relief when they discovered Ladybug safe and sound. Was that really consistent with her being some sort of super spy? 

Another memory sprang to mind, this one from only a couple months after Eve and Jess had started dating. Jess had come down with the flu. She had tried to hide her illness, knowing Lena had a lot of really important meetings scheduled that day. But then Lena had caught Jess sneaking off to go vomit in the bathroom and the CEO insisted she go home and not come back until she was feeling 100%. Jess had been forced to take four whole days off work, more sick leave than she had ever used in her life. 

Rather than trying to use Jess’ absence from the office as a chance to further ingratiate herself with Lena, Eve had taken four days off work herself, doting on Jess the entire time. Eve had even tried to make homemade chicken noodle soup. The soup had turned out terribly (as the cake incident had demonstrated, neither of them were exactly skilled in the kitchen). Jess had eaten it all anyway, telling Eve how much she loved it. She even asked for a second bowl, just to see the smile on Eve’s face. 

Of course, the whole thing had been blown when Eve decided to have some soup herself. Eve had taken one spoonful and then just laughed before pulling out her phone and ordering them delivery. Jess had tried to insist that she really did love the soup, but all it took was one look from Eve for her to crack. The two women had laughed until Jess had another coughing fit. Even though Jess had a fever of 102 at the time, it was still one of her favorite memories. 

“Holy crap!” Jess gasped as everything finally clicked into place. “Eve really loves me!” What they had was real!

“And there it is,” Kara smiled, not looking the least bit surprised at Jess’ revelation. 

The elation Jess felt at the revelation was short-lived. If Eve hadn’t been trying to use her… “Oh my god! I’m the monster! All this time, I thought Eve was some sort of villain, but I’m the one that started dating someone so I could spy on her. That was lying the whole time.” Jess didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She had found the woman of her dreams and then proceeded to treat her like a criminal. And when the love of her life had proposed, Jess had yelled at her for it. “She’s never going to want to see me again!” 

As if on cue, at that very moment there was a soft knock at the apartment door. “Jess, can… can I come in?” Eve called softly from the other side. As if this wasn’t her apartment too. Hell, it had been her apartment first. That’s just how Eve was; always more worried about Jess than herself. How had Jess ever thought Eve had some secret agenda? 

Jess’ heart ached. She was going to have to explain why she had reacted the way she had when Eve had proposed. She wouldn’t lie to her again. She couldn’t lie to her again. The last thing Jess wanted to do was hurt Eve, but she deserved the truth.

“Just remember, she loves you. Have faith in her,” Kara whispered softly before she gave Jess’s shoulder a comforting squeeze and got off the couch. Kara walked over to the still open window and flew off into the night. 

Jess made her way to the door, guilt pooling in her stomach the whole time. Opening the door, she saw a bedraggled looking Eve, her eyes red. It was clear she had been crying. 

As soon as she saw her, Eve blurted out, “Lena told me you were home. I’m so sorry. I… I don’t know what I did wrong, but I obviously messed up somehow. Please tell me what I did and how I can fix it.”

“No!” Jess protested, her guilt only intensifying. How could Eve think she was the one that had made a mistake? “You didn’t do anything wrong!” Jess couldn’t stand to see her girlfriend taking the blame when all she had done was ask Jess to marry her. Something that Jess hadn’t even realized she had wanted until it was too late. 

“Then… then why did you…” Eve sobbed, not even able to finish her sentence. 

Jess rushed into the hallway, gathering her girlfriend in her arms. Eve still didn’t know what was going on, but she clung fiercely to Jess. Jess tried to reassure her girlfriend, “I’m so sorry. It was all my fault. Come on, let’s get inside. I’ll try to explain.” 

Ushering her girlfriend back inside, Jess guided them to the couch. “Can I get you a drink or something?” 

“I— I just want to know what’s going on,” Eve answered, still sniffling. 

“Okay,”Jess said, taking a breath. “So there’s not really an easy way to say this—” 

That had obviously not been the right way to start as Eve immediately interrupted to ask, “Wait, are you breaking up with me?” with fear in her voice. 

“Of course not!” Jess answered. Eve was almost certainly going to want to break up with _her_ once she found out the truth, but that was the last thing Jess wanted. “I love you. Like so, so much. But, well, I messed up.”

“Oh god,” Eve cried. “You cheated on me!” 

“What? No! I would never cheat on you!” Jess defended. “I love you so, so much. It’s just… I’m saying this all wrong.” 

“Okay. So you didn’t cheat on me and you aren’t breaking up with me,” Eve sighed, clasping and unclasping her hands and taking a deep breath. “Okay, lay it on me then. As long as it isn’t either of those things, I think it’ll be okay.” Jess wished she could be as sure of that as Eve seemed to be. 

“Do you remember our first date?” Jess asked. When Eve nodded, she continued, “Well, it wasn’t really supposed to be a date. When you first started working at L-Corp, I… I didn’t trust you. I… I thought you were just pretending to be Eve Teschmacher, brilliant scientist.”

“What?!” 

“Lena and Kara had just started dating and then all of the sudden you came along. Another beautiful blue-eyed blonde with a super friendly attitude. You were like a bubblier version of Kara that could also keep up with Lena in the lab. On paper you were the perfect candidate to catch Lena’s eye and get her off-guard.” 

Eve looked completely flummoxed, “So you thought I was supposed to lure Lena with my wiles and what… murder her?!” 

“I wasn’t really sure,” Jess admitted. “I thought you might just be a tabloid reporter hoping for a juicy story. Or you could have been a corporate spy. But… yeah, assassin was one of the options I considered.” Now that Jess was saying these things out loud again today, for the first time since she had originally brought up her concerns to Lena and Kara so long ago, it was clear how ludicrous her theories had been. No wonder Kara and Lena had laughed off her worries. Anyone that spent a significant amount of time with Eve could tell that she did not have an evil bone in her body. 

“I never should have suspected you in the first place,” Jess admitted. “It’s just… A couple years ago, before you started working at L-Corp, Cadmus managed to get one of their agents hired as an accountant. For months she secretly funneled L-Corp funds to support illegal Cadmus projects. Lena eventually found out about the funding when she was trying to help Kara with something, but she didn’t realize the accountant, Alanna, was involved. Alanna alerted Cadmus and they sent some thugs to kidnap Lena so she couldn’t tell anyone what she found.” 

“Jesus!” 

“Yeah,” Jess nodded with a grimace. “Except when they tried to kidnap her, Lena wasn’t exactly cooperative and in the struggle they ended up throwing her over the balcony in her office. If Kara had been even a second later getting there…” Jess shuddered at the thought. 

“To make things worse, I thought Alanna was a good person. We were friends. At least I thought we were. When Lena asked me if there was someone from the accounting team she could trust to help her look into any missing funds, I recommended Alanna. My best friend almost died because I fucked up. I swore to myself I’d never let something like that happen again.”

“So when an executive assistant at CatCo suddenly was found to have three PHDs and was given a chance to work with Lena…” Eve suggested.

“I was so sure you were too good to be true,” Jess admitted, looking down at her lap. “I told Lena and Kara as much, but they both assured me I was worrying over nothing. Lena didn’t really know you very well yet, but Kara did and she personally vouched for you. I should have listened, but I had been too trusting with Alanna. I told myself I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

“I did some digging online to see if I could find anything suspicious, you know? But when that didn’t pan out I thought if I became your friend maybe you’d mess up and reveal something. That day in the lunchroom when I asked you out? I wasn’t actually trying to ask you out on a date, I just thought you might be more likely to let something slip outside of the office. But when you thought I was asking you out... I just kind of went with it,” Jess explained. “First dates are full of getting-to-know-you questions, so it seemed like a great chance. I never thought it would be anything real. I never expected to fall in love.”

Jess shook her head, “I think that shows how stupid I was being. Of course I fell in love with you. How could I not? For a while I managed to convince myself that the way I felt was just part of an act. That I was being all ‘method’ and throwing myself into the role. Even when I realized the truth, that I was madly, wildly in love with you, I deluded myself into thinking I was in love with your persona. That it was real for me, but not for you. I think I was just clinging to that lie because if it was easier than admitting that I messed up. Instead of being honest about my feelings, I bottled up all my insecurities and doubts until they exploded.

“When you proposed tonight, all those emotions just kind of went everywhere. I knew that I couldn’t get married to you and still tell myself that what we had was pretend. If I had been right about you being some sort of spy or something, then I had fallen in love with a person that didn’t even exist. But if I was wrong and what we had was real, then I had spent the last year and a half being the world’s worst girlfriend.” Jess sighed, “Hell, I almost wished you had been faking it. At least then I wouldn’t have hurt you.” Why couldn’t Jess have just asked Eve out for real like a normal person? 

“I’ve never loved someone the way I love you. Even though I convinced myself it was all a game, I’ve honestly never been happier than when I am with you. I’m sorry I lied. I’m sorry I couldn’t get over my own issues and admit that you are like the most amazing woman on this planet. If I could undo it and just give you the fair chance I should have given you all those months ago, I would. I just hope you can forgive me one day.” 

Jess had no idea how Eve would react to the bombshell Jess had just dropped on their relationship, but she knew it wouldn’t be good. There would definitely be hurt and anger, and probably tears and yelling. Jess definitely wasn’t expecting Eve to start giggling, but that is what actually happened. 

“Are… are you okay?” Jess asked, bewildered at the reaction. When Eve just nodded as she kept giggling, she added, “Shouldn’t you be like… yelling at me or something?” 

“Nope,” Eve shook her head, fully laughing now. 

“You should be!” Jess protested. “I was a jerk. I lied to you!” 

“You did,” Eve admitted once she finally managed to get her laughter under control. “But only because you were trying to keep your best friend safe.”

“Maybe that would be okay for one date, but I’ve been lying to you for a year and a half!” 

Eve shook her head, “But you weren’t lying. Not really. You only thought you were.” 

“But isn’t that just as bad?” Jess wanted to accept the forgiveness she was being offered, but she didn’t feel like she deserved it, not after everything she had done. 

Eve reached out and took Jess’ hands in her own, giving them a reassuring squeeze. “The way I see it, we have two options. Option one, I get mad, maybe like throw a drink in your face or something and then storm out of here. We both spend the next few weeks being miserable until you figure out some grand gesture to show how much you love me and how sorry you are, things I already know are true. Or, option two, I can forgive you right now and the whole ‘I thought my girlfriend was actually a bad-ass secret agent’ thing can just be a funny story we tell at our wedding. I don’t know about you, but option two sounds like a lot more fun to me” 

Jess couldn’t help but laugh in relief. “God, I love you,” she breathed, before using their still joined hands to pull Eve closer so she could kiss the other woman, still not quite able to believe that was something she still got to do. 

“Mmmm… good choice,” Eve murmured when the kiss ended. “Speaking of choices, you know, you never actually answered my question this evening.” 

Jess’s eyes went wide with shock. “You… you still want to…” 

“I know the responsible thing to do would be to say we should wait. To give us a chance to adjust to a relationship where we both know it’s real. And I know you are kind of the responsible one in this relationship so if you want to wait, that’s totally cool. But I was really hoping that today was finally going to be the day I got to ask you to marry me, so I’d very much like to ask now if that’s okay with you.”

Eve was right that waiting would be the responsible thing to do. Jess was probably suffering from some sort of emotional whiplash right now. Until a few hours ago, Jess hadn’t even let herself entertain the idea that she and Eve may have a real future. So she probably should give herself time to reflect on that. But when the choice between doing the responsible thing or getting engaged to the love of her life, it was no real choice. “Ask me.” 

“Yeah?” Eve asked. Eve’s eyes were still red from crying earlier, and her make-up was a mess, but Jess had never seen the other woman look so happy. 

At Jess’ nod, Eve started fishing in her purse before producing a familiar black box. “You kind of started yelling at me before I could finish asking last time, so I’m just going to start at the beginning, okay?” 

“Of course.” 

“Most people underestimate me. I’m perky and I’m not always great at social cues, so a lot of people just assume I’m kind of an idiot. But not you. You never underestimated me. Never thought I was just a pretty face. Technically, you kind of overestimated me since you thought I was like James Bond or something,” Eve laughed. “But even then; you knew that there was more to me than just surface.

“If anyone had asked me, I would have said I was happy even before we met. I’ve had jobs I enjoyed, friends I cherished, and, of course, I treasure Alma and Ladybug, but ever since you fumbled your way into asking me out on a date, I’ve learned the difference between being content and being happy. You’ve shown me what true happiness is and I want nothing more than to be your wife. So, Jessica Huang, will you marry me?” 

“Of course, I’ll marry you,” Jess answered, laughing before pulling her girlfriend— her fiance onto her feet and into a passionate embrace, barely registering the sound of something plinking on the hardwood floor.

Eve joined in her laughter but pointed out, “Uh, babe, you totally made me drop the ring.” 

“Oh shoot!” Jess answered, cheeks flushing red but still laughing. “I’m… I’m just so happy right now.” 

“Me too,” Eve answered, smiling widely as she bent down and retrieved the ring where it had fallen from its box. “But let’s get this ring on you before one of the cats decides to start batting it around.” 

As Jess giddily held out her hand, she got her first real look at the ring. The first time Eve had proposed, Jess had been too angry to even look at the box in Eve’s hands. And on the second attempt, Jess hadn’t been able to look away from Eve’s face long enough to take in the ring. But now, once her fiance finished sliding the ring into place, Jess was finally able to take in the ring. “It’s beautiful,” Jess admired the emerald ring that now sat on her finger. The ring had a vivid green rectangular gem, with small diamond accents. Jess loved the feel of it on her finger.

“I know that diamonds are more traditional,” Eve explained, “But when I saw this ring, it was like, I knew it was the one.” 

“It’s perfect,” Jess answered, admiring the ring for a moment longer before shifting her gaze back to the other woman. “I mean, honestly, you could have given me a ring pop and I’d probably still think it was the best ring I had ever seen because it was the ring you proposed to me with. But it really is a beautiful ring.”

Jess couldn’t help but smile. She was engaged! “You have changed my life in so many ways. It’s thanks to you and Kara that Lena and I finally realized we could actually be best friends instead of pretending we’re just an employee and an employer. You showed me that it’s okay to open myself up to new experiences. You taught me how fun cooking can be, even if we suck at it. Heck,” Jess added with a laugh, “I thought I was straight before I met you. You have helped me learn so much about myself. You were so great that even when I thought you were just pretending to date me, I still couldn’t help falling in love with you. You are just that amazing. I just wish I had realized it was all real sooner.” 

Eve gathered Jess in her arms, giving the woman a tight hug. “If you hadn’t decided I was up to no good, we might have never gotten together in the first place! That’s a far worse fate if you ask me.” 

Jess tucked her head into Eve’s shoulder and laughed before adding, “You know I’m still going to do a big romantic gesture to make up for my stupidity, right?” Just because Eve had immediately forgiven her didn’t mean Jess wasn’t going to do everything in her power to make sure Eve knew how much she was loved. 

“I mean you already agreed to marry me, it’s going to be tough to top that,” Eve teased.

“True,” Jess allowed. “But we personal assistant’s are a persistent bunch. If the first gesture isn’t up to my standards, I’ll just have to keep trying. 

“Oh really?” Eve chuckled, “And just how long do you think it'll take you to get it right?” 

“Oh, seventy or eighty years at least,” Jess answered. 

“Oh yeah?” Eve asked, pulling back slightly so their eyes could meet. “I like the sound of that.”

“Me too,” Jess sighed in contentment. “Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally planned to be 1500 to 2000 words and more of a crackfic, but then Jess had to get all feelings-y, and things kind of just exploded from there. Hope you enjoyed it!


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